


Christmas in the Country

by furchte_die_schildkrote



Category: The Importance of Being Earnest - Wilde
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-23
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2018-01-05 17:14:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1096475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/furchte_die_schildkrote/pseuds/furchte_die_schildkrote
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Algernon and Cecily visit Jack and Gwendolyn in the country.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Christmas in the Country

**Author's Note:**

  * For [laura47](https://archiveofourown.org/users/laura47/gifts).



> Hello laura47! Congratulations on being my first Yuletide recipient! (Also, I'm sorry that you ended up with a new writer.) Anyways, I hope you enjoy your gift. Have a wonderful holiday season!

Algernon was fast asleep in the study, curled up in the armchair like an oversized cat. He snored with a volume that carried all through the halls of the country house, like an undersized elephant. A tuneless tenor voice—trying and failing to achieve the boomingly rich depth of a baritone—rang out through the same halls, mixing with the snores to form a truly artless symphony. Jack approached the study.

 _“God rest you merry, gentlemen!_  
 _Let nothing you dismay!_  
 _Remember Christ our savior_  
 _Was born—“_ A remarkably angry pillow flew towards Jack as he turned into the room, hitting the empty space eight feet to his left squarely in the head.

“Remember?! How could I forget? The infernal carolers never stop spouting off about it,” Algernon said, yanking his arm back under his head, stubbornly returning to his sleeping position, not even so much as lifting his head.

Jack whistled, loudly and with great spirit and spite, the remainder of his rudely interrupted verse.

“Just let me sleep, for goodness’s sake! Being kept awake by holiday cheer is just as insufferable, whether it is a well-tuned choir or a single, tone-deaf oaf. It is inhuman for a man to be denied his right to a proper early-evening nap. The sky is dark before suppertime; there you see nature herself telling me to sleep.

You, just a minute ago, were singing for the Lord to grant me rest. He is quite clearly trying to answer your prayer.”

“Tonight, you can sleep. Now, you are going to join me, Cecily, and Gwendolyn in the main hall and share in Christmas cheer,” Jack said, without much cheer.

“What are you doing in this part of the house, anyways?” asked the curled up mass on the armchair. “No one visits their study on Christmas Eve—at least, not you, of all people. Don’t you have company to keep? Guests to infuse with the season’s spirit on the far end of the house where I can’t hear you?”

“Yes, I have company, but you see, half of that company is sleeping in my study. This makes it very difficult for me to entertain them. Quite discourteous, too. Forcing me to be a poor host,“ said Jack, standing accusingly. “And I am here because I imagined I would find you if I followed the snores, though I admit at first I feared they were not snores at all, but rather the sound of the house about.”

“And it did not occur to you that, perhaps if you have to search someone out, they may not want to be found?” said Algernon, aggressively curling himself more tightly into the armchair seat.

Jack turned towards the window and began to fiddle with the latch. “And did it occur to you that your status as my friend and younger brother affords me the privilege of not caring?” he responded, letting an icy gust whip the window open.

“Fine, fine, I surrender,” said Algernon, dragging himself from the chair. “You should know, however, that if this is your idea of entertaining your guests, then you truly are a poor host.”

Jack shut the window, shivering slightly at the chilled room. This was not one of his better ideas.

Algernon stood, creaking his neck from side to side, stretching forward and arching his back.

“You really should invest in better chairs, Ernest. This one is remarkably uncomfortable.”

“If you sit in it properly, it is an entirely respectable chair.”

“But it is awful for sleeping, and that is an essential function of any decent study chair. Nothing puts a man to sleep faster than work. The least he can do is be comfortably prepared.”

Jack shook his head in tired disbelief. “I do not see why you were so insistent on visiting the country, Algy, if all you are planning on doing here is sleep and insult my furniture.”

“Well, do you expect me to nap when carolers and neighbors and just about everyone in all of London decides that the Christmas season is the perfect time to call on me? And Cecily insists that we simply cannot just turn them away.” After a brief pause, Algernon added, “Besides, you have not been in town much, and I missed you. Of all my relations, I have to admit that you are the least tedious and most entertaining. And Cecily missed Gwendolyn as well. Clearly, a visit was in order.”

Jack kissed Algernon, a peck on the cheek and then something a bit more than a peck on the lips. “Not the most flattering of compliments, but I’ll accept it. I missed you too.”

Algernon returned the kiss, reaching his arms around Jack and tugging him closer. Jack pulled in closer, bringing the kiss even deeper and stronger. After several moments, the two broke off the kiss.

“That is also something I missed,” Algernon said lightly, slightly out of breath. “If this is how you soften a rude awakening, I cannot say that I could stay cross at you.”

Jack responded merely with another kiss, this time grasping at Algernon even more wildly, his hands making Algernon go weak at the knees as they moved further down.

“Tchh, one moment,” said Algernon, reluctantly reaching down to halt the progression of Jack’s hands. He stepped away from the embrace. “We should close the door. In case Cecily or Gwendolyn comes looking.”

“Why should that matter? We have hardly been discreet in the past. They have hardly been discreet in the past.”

“Apparently the two of them have come to the conclusion that our arrangement would be more proper if we maintain some sort of illusion of secrecy amongst ourselves. I told her that I deeply doubt propriety even touches on these sorts of matters, but she was very insistent, and when she is that set on a matter, I simply cannot find it in my heart to deny her. Nor would I be able to. Reality itself bends to her will,” said Algernon. As he closed the door, he shook his head in a sort of fearful awe.

“Wait,” said Jack, as he stepped towards the door and touched up his slightly rumpled shirt. “Tonight. We can continue tonight. We cannot just abandon Cecily and Gwendolyn for our own private amusement.”

“I thought tonight was when I get to sleep, Ernest,” said Algernon, with a disappointed but resigned smirk. The two left the study.

Upon reaching the main hall, they found that Cecily and Gwendolyn were hardly practicing the discretion that Cecily had proposed.


End file.
